🚀 go-pugleaf

In 1994 the State of Mississippi, a well known left-wing vacation
spot, filed suit against the tobacco industry to recoup that state's
share of Medicaid funds spent on smoking related illnesses.  Since
then, 18 other States have taken similar action.

Just last week, a judge in Florida allowed the State of Florida to add
a claim under the state's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations (RICO) law to it's $2.4 Billion lawsuit for the
repayment of public funds spent on tobacco illnesses.  If Florida
proves its case under the RICO statute, damages would triple.
Florida's Governor Lawton Chiles stated that "For decades, the tobacco
cartel has conspired - like a crime family - to hook our people on its
deadly product and hide the evidence."  In approving the claim the
Judge wrote: "No cocaine cartel, gambling empire or white-collar
scheme has even approached the damage allegedly done to the state as
alleged in the plaintiff's case."  The Albany Times Union reports that
Florida's suit claims industry officials lied to the federal
government, committed fraud, illegally marketed its products to
children and conspired to deceive the public about the dangers of
smoking.  The States of Arizona and Texas are also reportedly
attempting to add a RICO claim to their suits against the tobacco
industry.

One wonders why New York State, with its supposedly cost conscious
Republican governor hasn't joined in this attempt to recover taxpayers
dollars.  Although estimates vary, it is generally reported that
tobacco related illnesses cost New York taxpayers more that $1 billion
a year. For a year now, Republican Attorney General Dennis Vacco has
been "studying the possibility" and "consulting" with others in the
Pataki administration.  In November, a coalition of groups including
the New York State Nurses Association, the American Cancer Society,
the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, the
League of Women Voters of New York and the New York Public Interest
Research Group urged Attorney General Vacco to sue to recoup this
loss.

In a March, 1996 editorial, The Troy Record stated that "Smoking
related illnesses are killing our residents and costing taxpayers
millions of dollars in added health care costs.  It's about time New
York joined other states in forcing tobacco companies to pay up."

In September, Erie County, tired of waiting for Vacco to act, filed
its own lawsuit against the tobacco companies.  New York City has also
chosen to act independently of the State.

In fact, the only New York State official who seems serious about
issues related to cigarette smoking is Comptroller H. Carl McCall. In
September, McCall said that, as sole trustee of the state retirement
fund, he would be keeping an eye on the fund's holdings in the tobacco
industry.  This week, McCall announced that he would throw the weight
of the retirement fund behind efforts to force tobacco companies to
stop marketing their products to teenagers.  McCall has proposed
shareholder resolutions which would force company executives to
voluntarily comply with recently proposed US Food and Drug
Administration regulations aimed at curbing teenage smoking.  Up until
now, the industry has vigorously opposed these regulations which would
prohibit cigarette ads on billboards within 1,000 feet of schools,
restrict the types tobacco ads in magazines aimed at younger readers,
prohibit certain in-store cigarette advertising and prohibit vending
machines in places where teenagers have access to them.  The
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility has called McCall's plan
"a tremendous act of leadership by the state."  Executive director
Timothy Smith went on to say that the plan "will send a very strong
message to the tobacco industry."

On Sunday December 15, Governor Pataki issued a news release outlining
a modest advertising program aimed at smoking by adolescents and
pregnant women.  Pataki proposed spending $13 million over the next
two years in the campaign.  The proposal also raises to $200 the fee
retailers pay to sell cigarettes with half of those funds going to
local governments to enforce laws prohibiting sales to those under 18.
But why is the Governor spending MORE of our tax dollars instead of
trying to get some of those dollars BACK?

Could campaign contributions have anything to do with it?  Patrick
Reynolds, whose family founded the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (now
part of RJR Nabisco), is now an anti-smoking activist and claims that
the industry contributed $15 million to Republican campaigns in 1996.
The NY Times reported earlier this year that since the beginning of
1995 tobacco interests had contributed $2.1 million to the Republican
National Committee and only $78,200 to the DNC.

Pataki's ad campaign, which features his wife Libby,(can an ad
featuring Al D'Amato be far behind) had been hailed by the press as "a
sharp break with his administration's attitude toward the tobacco
industry [Tom Precious - Albany TU]" and as "a welcome departure from
an attitude toward the tobacco industry that had concerned many in New
York. [TU editorial]."  Come on folks.  In the first place, New York
risks losing federal funding if spot checks at cigarette retailers
don't result in at least 80 percent refusing to sell to minors.  In
the second place, I've never seen any figures regarding advertising
and promotional spending by cigarette manufacturers in New York but I
can guarantee that $13 million pales by comparison.  Can't you see
those cigarette company executives huddling around their conference
tables saying "Damn it, why didn't Pataki just sue us for $10 billion.
This ad campaign is going to put us out of business.  All of our
billboards, sports advertising, in store displays - all wasted because
of these damn ads with that broad, Libby.  She really connects with
those rebellious teens we target."

This ad campaign was the least the governor could do.  And when it
comes to offending the tobacco industry, New York Republicans always
do the least they can do.
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www.albany.net/~truland/